Andrew Jackson on Indian Removal

On December 6, 1830, in his annual message to the nation—now commonly referred to as the president's State of the Union address—President Andrew Jackson delivered his remarks On Indian Removal. In the spring of 1830 Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act, and on May 28 of that year Jackson had signed the bill into law. The act gave the president the authority to negotiate “removal” treaties with all of the Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River. Under these agreements, each tribe would surrender its homeland in the East and relocate within a stated period of time to a territory west of that great waterway. In his annual message, Jackson praised Congress for putting into law an Indian removal policy that he had recommended for over a decade. In addition, Jackson attempted to provide Congress and the public with justifications for why Native Americans in the East needed to be removed beyond the reach of American settlement.

Andrew Jackson on Indian removal (National Archives and Records Administration)